Utilizing solar energy to produce heat is well known. Systems have been used with a large number of aligned curved reflectors to receive energy from the sun to focus and reflect rays to a receiver element. The receiver element may comprise a conduit through which circulating water or oil is passed and heated by the reflected sun rays from the reflectors.
Because of the relatively high use contemplated for solar energy systems, it is desirable to be able to build such systems with minimum costs. Reducing such cost generally involves utilizing a minimum number of parts and assembling such parts with a minimum amount of labor. It is desirable that the parts be made by conventional techniques and be capable of mass production to cut overall costs.
While the costs of producing solar systems are of great importance, it is equally important that the efficiency of the systems is not impaired. For example, the parts used must be capable of long lives and the structure for holding and rotating the array of solar panels must be relatively strong and capable of withstanding adverse weather conditions over long periods of time.
The present invention relates to a structure for supporting a plurality of aligned solar panels. One such structure is described in a copending patent application entitled "A Support Structure for Supporting a Plurality of Aligned Solar Panels", Ser. No. 236,862, filed Feb. 23, 1981, assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. While the structure described in this patent application, is extremely strong and satisfactory, the number of parts involved and labor involved in assembly tends to be higher than that involved in the subject invention.
Another copending application entitled "Panel for a Solar Heating System", Ser. No. 185,360, filed Sept. 8, 1980, also assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, describes a type of solar panel which may be used with the present invention.